


Planning for the Future

by rudbeckia



Series: Spookylux Huxloween 2018 [25]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Humor, Brendol Hux's A+ Parenting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-05 09:45:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16365524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Huxloween day 25: Communicating across timeBen finds some of Armitage’s old school exercise books in the attic. Armitage throws them all out, but Ben rescues a few and finds out a few things about Armitage and his family.





	Planning for the Future

The trapdoor in the ceiling opened with a creak and banged against its supports. The ladder stuck and jarred, reaching the floor with reluctance. Ben checked it was stable then climbed until he stood with his head and shoulders in the attic. He brought his arms up and felt around for a light switch. Yellow light flooded the space and lit up the clouds of dust disturbed by the opening trapdoor. Ben coughed once and clambered the rest of the way up. On hands and knees he turned and peered back down.  
“Okay. Pass me the box.”  
Hux hefted a cardboard box up and Ben hauled it into the attic. He slid it across the hardboard flooring to join a few more boxes. He looked in one.  
“Hey, what’s in all of these?”  
“Nothing really,” Hux called up. “I should dispose of them. Actually, while you’re up there, bring one down and I’ll sort through it.”  
“Okay,” Ben chose the furthest box. He dragged it back to the entrance. “This one’s heavy. Ready?”  
“Yes.”  
Ben lowered the box, arms straining until he felt Hux support it from below. With a grunt and a groan and a thump, Hux put the box on the floor and Ben came back down, shutting off the light and closing the trapdoor behind him. Hux opened the box right away, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the small landing with the staircase leading down behind him. He laughed.  
“I can’t believe I kept these,” he said, pulling out an exercise book with a floral wallpaper cover. “They’re old school books. They can go straight into the recycling.”  
Ben laughed. “Okay. Want me to help carry them downstairs?”  
Hux scrambled to his feet and nodded. Ben lifted the box and between them they carried it to the recycling bin outside. 

Half an hour later, Hux kissed Ben goodbye and promised not to be late home. Ben pottered around the house for an hour, did some laundry and cleaned the kitchen, then thought about the box from the attic. He laughed to himself, put the coffee machine on, went outside and retrieved a handful of books and envelopes from the recycling bin. He sat at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee and picked up the first book.

_Armitage Hux_  
_Class 3A_  
_English_

He smiled at the painfully neat handwriting then opened to the first page.

_ All About Me. _  
_My name is Armitage. I am seven years old. I have red hair and green eyes and I am quite tall and everybody says I am skinny. I live in a house with my father and my stepmother and my little brother William. William is two years old. My stepmother is his real mother. I do not know who my real mother is. Sometimes I daydream that she will come and get me and love me but father says that is a stupid thing to say. I do not have a best friend yet but when I get a best friend we will probably play games together and eat ice cream._

Ben felt his eyelids prickle. He closed the book and chose another.

_Armitage Hux_  
_Class 7B_  
_English_

_ My Future Plans. _  
_My name is Armitage Hux. My father is a successful businessman who works in the private defence industry. Even though I am only eleven years old, he says that I’m old enough to be learning a trade. My Aunt Rae works for the same company as my father and she takes me to work with her in the school holidays._  
_I am going to work hard at school because my father said he is ashamed of me for getting put down a class and this school is expensive so I need to be top of the top class to make him proud of me. My stepmother said that if I get put back into class A she will let William and ~~I~~ me have a kitten. I want a kitten that is ginger like me and my brother and I will call her Millicent. I love her already._  
_I want to be an engineer when I grow up. Aunt Rae says I will have to go to university like she did and get a degree. There are lots of different sorts of engineer and I will have to choose which sort of engineering I want to learn. So I want to be top of the top class so that I can be an engineer like Aunt Rae and get a kitten._

Ben put that book down too, silently wishing Brendol was still alive so that he could be killed all over again. He got up and poured more coffee, then chose a large folio that looked like it might be a sketch pad.

_Armitage Hux_  
_Class 12A_  
_Design and Technology_

_ Starkiller Base _  
_My individual design project is for an orbital space station that has the ability to use solar energy to fuel a weapon that will be able to fire on any location of the operator’s choosing. This is a cross-curricular project that calls on my knowledge of physics, mathematics, computer science and philosophy. Diagram 1 is a preliminary schematic of Starkiller Base with all of the major components and their functions outlined. In this report, I will expand on each section to include details of materials required for its construction, computer and personnel resources required for its operation and a discussion of the ethics of building a powerful superweapon that can be controlled by a single individual: me._

Ben looked at the meticulously drawn diagram of something that looked for all the world like a giant, evil pokéball, and laughed.


End file.
